RESEARCH INTERESTS

Our research has two main themes. Our emerging work focuses on “Stewardship Science“, which combines environmental science research with community service. Most of this work involves urban agriculture research. We’re developing multiple projects that test hypotheses about small-scale farming, and each project is designed to make a direct contribution to our local community. Another part of our work focuses on how the nutritional composition of resource inputs influences ecological interactions in invertebrate communities. A common theme through these projects is the importance of nutrient balance and how particular nutrient scarcities or excesses affect ecological processes.

Fall 2016
Courses

CRN: 43386
4 Credit Hours
Instructor: Adam D. Kay
Influences of humans on the global environment have reached unprecedented levels, increasing the need for society to strive to live in a sustainable manner. Many issues facing the environment have a biological basis. Thus, an understanding of basic biology is necessary to understand and address many environmental issues. This course will cover the fundamental biology involved with five environmental issues at the global scale: climate change, excessive nutrient loading into ecosystems, agricultural production, chemical contaminants, and loss of biodiversity. Specific biological principles to be covered include energy and nutrient mass balance by organisms and ecosystems, homeostasis and organismal physiology, and population dynamics and conservation biology.
Prerequisite: A minimum grade of C- in BIOL 208, or any 100-level GEOL, and CHEM 112 or CHEM 115